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As usual, Teddy Roosevelt pulled up the rear but stole the show, as ESPN’s E:60 ended Tuesday night with an eight minute Ken Burns-narrated feature story on the conspiracy surrounding Nationals racing president Teddy Roosevelt.

ESPN’s Michael Johns set out to produce the definitive piece on the Let Teddy Win movement, and by all accounts, a new bar has been set. The mini-documentary featured the Let Teddy Win blog along with interviews with Senator John McCain and the great great grandson of Theodore Roosevelt himself, Winthrop Roosevelt.

“Theodore Roosevelt is one of the great presidents in history,” McCain says in the video. “I’ve been paying a lot of attention to the fact that one of the truly great presidents in history has never won a race. I’m outraged. That’s why I’m calling for congressional hearings to right this horrible wrong.”

The Arizona senator called Teddy’s losing streak “one of the more traumatic experiences I’ve had as I watch my hero, my childhood idol, being treated in such a cavalier fashion.”

“He is Mount Rushmore’s Rodney Dangerfield,” Burns intones has he describes Teddy’s lot in modern day Washington, “a legendary president that gets no respect.”

7 Responses

We came across the Short Doc “Let Teddy Win” and thought it was hilariously funny and amazing. We would like to have it screened in our next Short Film screening here in Los Angeles. Every quarter we take 5-6 shorts and screen them in a major theater. We offer our attendees complimentary popcorn and drinks along with being able to mingle with the filmmakers during the after screening mixer. Please let us know if this is something that is of interest. Thank you and have a good day.

The completely unfair treatment of Teddy coincides with the creation of the know-nothing Tea Party. And, as the narrator says here, the Republican President (not Teddy, a Progressive at heart) is the biggest cheater.